SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/5/2014 10:17 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Paul’s Motivation By God’s Knowledge
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 Thess.
2:4b-5
Message of the
verses: “so we speak, not as
pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. 5 For we never came with
flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed-God is witness,”
Anyone who has been a believer in Jesus Christ for a
while knows that there is a battle that goes on between your old nature and
your new nature and also between your new nature and, as Paul puts it in
Ephesians chapter six, “but against the rulers, against the powers, against the
world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in
the heavenly places.” Jesus went up
against this while on earth as Satan tempted Him greatly as described in
Matthew chapter four. My point here is
that Paul had people against him in all of the places that he preached the
gospel and so he defended himself against those who were trying to undermine
what he was doing. Paul knew that these
enemies were not his judge, but God was and Paul tried to please God all of the
time. Paul defended himself in 1 Cor.
4:1-5 with these words: “1 Let a man
regard us in this manner, as
servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 In this case,
moreover, it is required
of stewards that one be found trustworthy. 3 But to me it is a very
small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do
not even examine myself. 4 For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I
am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. 5 Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until
the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness
and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come
to him from God.”
John MacArthur writes:
“since the Lord is the true Judge, the apostle called upon God as his
Witness in the care of this church and asked Him to confirm that he and his
friends had not come to exploit the Thessalonians with flattering speech. The person using flattering speech
compliments someone else merely as a ploy to win favor with the person or to
gains power over him. Paul did not stoop
to the sin of flattery, no doubt remembering the Old Testament words: ‘May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that speaks great things.”
False teachers would use flattery to get the things they
wanted from the unsuspecting people whom they came into contact with. Paul was
not like this.
Warren Wiersbe writes:
“I once read that a flatterer is a person who manipulates rather than
communicates. A flatterer can use either
truth or lies to achieve the unholy purpose, which is to control your decisions
for his own profit.
“Some people even flatter themselves. ‘For he flatters himself in his own eyes’
(Ps. 36:2).” Wiersbe goes on to say that
the example of this found in the OT was Haman, which is found in the book of
Ester.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I must remember
that God is my judge, but He can use others to help me see the error of my
ways.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Proverbs 3:5-6.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Syrophenicia” (Mark 7:26-28).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who threatened Elijah’s life
on Mt. Carmel?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/5/2014 10:48 PM
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